Police officer put on paid leave following sex assault accusations

Police Officer Charles Hoeffer has moved from department to department in Palm Beach County as women have accused him of harassment, abuse and even sexual assault, according to personnel and police documents.

The 53-year-old officer has kept his badge even after facing seven official complaints of misconduct involving women over a span of 27 years at three police departments, records show.

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All but one of the internal investigations have concluded the women's claims were not substantiated.

Over his career, Hoeffer:

• Resigned as a Delray Beach police officer in 1991 during an internal-affairs investigation into accusations he broke his estranged wife's nose.

Police have taken no action in either case, saying in their reports the women did not cooperate.

Martinetti told the Sun Sentinel she met Hoeffer in 2010 when she moved to Palm Beach Shores from England. He was patrolling her street, and would stop and pet her dogs while she was walking them, she said.

"I thought he was a friend," she said. "This didn't happen overnight. He groomed me."

She confided in him that she was having marital issues and he gave her some names of counseling services and groups that might be able to help her, she said. He suggested getting coffee in August 2013.

According to a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office incident report, Martinetti said Hoeffer drove her to a secluded lot in Lake Worth and touched her inappropriately. She told him he was just a friend and that she wasn't interested in him sexually, the report said.

She got out of his truck, thinking that would dissuade him from trying anything further, but instead he grabbed at her underwear and groped her, the report said.

Martinetti demanded that Hoeffer take her to her car, but she didn't immediately report it out of embarrassment, she said.

The Sheriff's Office received Martinetti's report last year. Palm Beach sheriff's deputies said Martinetti was uncooperative and refused to go on the record with her allegations, so they could not send the case to prosecutors, a report said.

Sheriff's spokesman Teri Barbera said Friday the case has since been closed.

Martinetti told the Sun Sentinel she was more than willing to help deputies, but felt deputies were not receptive to her claims, and the case didn't proceed.

The second woman told police she met Hoeffer in October 2013 and they became friends, according to a Riviera Beach Police report.

In March 2014, she said, Hoeffer came to her house in Riviera Beach while he was on duty and sexually assaulted her, according to the police report.

After she and Martinetti talked, she didn't immediately report it to police. The woman, who is blind, was embarrassed by what happened and was scared to report the alleged incident because it might upset her fiance, she later told officers.

She said she trusted Hoeffer as a friend and he apologized to her for what happened, according to the report.

But in April 2014, the woman said Hoeffer came to her house and assaulted her again, the report said.

About two months later, in June 2014, she went to the police.

As of November 2014, Riviera Beach Police listed her case as "inactive," saying in a report that "the witness was not cooperating." The report states the woman had multiple medical issues that made it hard for her to be interviewed.

Hoeffer began his law enforcement career as a Delray Beach police officer in 1987.

In 1991, he was accused of breaking his wife's nose, according to an internal affairs report. The internal investigation found that Hoeffer's actions toward his wife were unbecoming of an officer and that he lied to supervisors during the investigation.

He resigned less than a week before the investigation was concluded and no action was taken against him.

Hoeffer and his wife were separated, but records from the police department at the time showed that Hoeffer was calling his wife multiple times a day, so much so that his then-supervisor, Lt. Marc Woods, told him to leave his wife alone.

On Feb. 2, Hoeffer waited outside her apartment until she came home at 3 a.m., she told investigators. He grabbed her, snatched off one of her boots, and struck her in the face with it. He then ran off while neighbors administered first aid and called the police, the report said.

A police officer responded to the apartment, which was outside Delray Beach's jurisdiction. The address of the apartment is redacted from the report, which also does not specify which police agency responded.

According to documents in Hoeffer's file, a police officer from the responding agency alerted Delray Beach police to the incident, and no charges were filed. It's unclear whether the responding agency sought charges against Hoeffer or if the State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute.

On Feb. 8, Hoeffer resigned.

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Hotel rape allegation 'unfounded'

He got a job eight months later in October 1991 with the Riviera Beach Police Department. And within three-and-a-half years, Hoeffer again found himself at the center of an internal affairs report.

On Aug. 13, 1994, a woman said Hoeffer drove her to a hotel room while she was intoxicated, bought a room with her credit card and had non-consensual sex with her, according to an internal affairs report.

Hoeffer told Riviera Beach police that while he was on patrol, he saw the intoxicated woman trying to get into her car after leaving a bar and offered to give her a ride home, according to records from Hoeffer's personnel file.

The woman said she lived outside of city limits, so Hoeffer, saying he was unable to leave the city, offered to help her get a hotel room. He drove her there, checked her in and he walked her into her room, according to both Hoeffer and the woman's account of the story.

But after that moment, their accounts varied wildly.

He told investigators he was in the room for only a few minutes and nothing happened. The woman told them that he sexually assaulted her and that she was too drunk to stop him, according to an internal affairs report from the Riviera Beach Police Department.

Investigators determined the woman wasn't credible because she was unable to identify Hoeffer in a photo lineup and sperm samples on the woman didn't match Hoeffer's blood type. An investigation by the department said the woman's claims were unfounded, and no charges were filed.

Then-Chief Jerry Poreba fired Hoeffer in October 1995 over the incident, citing improper conduct toward the public, willful neglect of duties and violation of official procedures, among other things, according to records.

But in November 1996, an arbitrator ruled the department had to rehire Hoeffer and had to pay him for the year that he was dismissed from duty.

According to documents in Hoeffer's file, the arbitrator found that because Hoeffer had never been found guilty of rape, he should not have been fired.

"One point should be made clear. There is no charge by the City that [Hoeffer] intended, tried, or did have sex with the female (with or without consent)," Arbitrator Mark Grossman wrote. "Obviously, if that had been the charge and it was sustained, there clearly would have been cause for immediate discharge."

He returned to his job until he retired from the department in July 2008.

Hoeffer had few other complaints about him with Riviera Beach. While on the force, Hoeffer was commended for his work with the D.A.R.E. drug prevention program and his skilled detective work.

Joining a smaller force

The same month he retired from Riviera Beach, Hoeffer was hired at the Palm Beach Shores Police Department — a small force that serves the tiny coastal town. While working there, in addition to the two women who accused him of sexual assault, other women also accused him of improper conduct, according to internal affairs documents.

In a tearful interview with a Palm Beach Shores sergeant, a woman, 37, recounted how Hoeffer responded to her home for a domestic dispute in 2010 and made sexual comments toward her, according to an internal affairs report.

She said that as she was packing her bags to leave the residence, he picked up a bag and told her that he liked her thong underwear, the report said. He asked her if he could see her in one, it said.

"My trust pretty much with everybody around in this department is just like, gone, you know?" she told Sgt. Dave Kelley during a recorded interview. "You guys expect me to trust you when you say you're going to help me get out of this abusive relationship, and then as I'm trying to make my move to accelerate to a better place and try to do something better for myself, I just get slammed down again? … I'm just a piece of meat?"

The woman's claim, according to an internal affairs report, was unfounded.

In 2013, two female dispatchers who were supervised by Hoeffer complained to Town Manager Cindy Lindskoog that he commented on their appearance and would ask whether he could have sex with them despite them asking him not to.

An internal affairs report cleared Hoeffer of any wrongdoing. Shortly thereafter, the town moved to reduce one of the dispatcher's hours.